Revived truck brand Scout Motors has set the timetable for the debut of its first-ever EVs. This summer, the public will catch a glimpse of an all-electric pickup and an SUV the Volkswagen sub-brand has been developing since its recent inception. Here’s what we know.

The current iteration of Scout Motors is derived from the beloved nameplate of off-road vehicles built by International Harvester in the ’60s and ’70s. While only about 530,000 Scout trucks were built during its 20-year production run, the early Jeep competitor still holds a small but passionate fanbase.

In 2022, Volkswagen Group shared plans to capitalize off that heritage and revive the namesake for the modern, EV age while still delivering customers the rugged, off-road performance its remaining predecessors are still celebrated for. With the help of contract manufacturer Magna International, Scout Motors has two initial EV models in development

We know the two flagship models will be built in the US, specifically in South Carolina, but so far, we’ve only seen broad renderings of them. The young EV brand is currently working through design and development in Novi, Michigan, while a new Innovation Center is being built nearby.

Meanwhile, construction of Scout Motors’ production facility in The Palmetto State is underway. Before those builds begin however, we still need to see what Scout Motors’ first two EVs look like and know we know when to expect that milestone.

We’ll get a look at Scout Motors’ first EV in late summer

Per an update to the Scout Motors website, an EV reveal is being planned for late summer 2024. Exactly when or where this anticipated event will occur remains TBD. Still, we hope to get the invite as we were there for the groundbreaking ceremony in South Carolina this past February.

That’s about all we’ve learned about new information surrounding Scout Motors’ first two EVs, but previous conversations with executives, including CEO Scott Keogh, have hinted at what to expect during the summer reveal.

In talks with Electrek, Keogh expressed the advantage Scout Motors has as a clean slate design approach that, unlike most young EV brands, has an existing heritage backed by the purchasing and production expertise of parent Volkswagen Group.

That said, Scout intends to do its own thing regarding EV development and design. Scout’s Chief Production Officer, Dr. Jan Spies, told us that the platform technology Scout’s first two trucks will sit atop is “not a twin, daughter, or brother” to any of the platforms currently used in the larger VW Group.

Spies elaborated, saying Scout Motors’ bespoke EV platform gives it an advantage in terms of development speed and offers a beautiful opportunity to deliver a unique car for its environment. Keogh assured us the two bespoke EVs are both “badass” and “robust,” designed to tackle the elements and stay true to the legacy of trucks that inspired them.

We expect Scout to sacrifice a bit of range in exchange for such off-road performance, but we won’t know where those numbers land until the official reveal. In February, Scout Motors’ CEO said the final designs of both trucks were super close, with the actual engineering of the EVs to quickly follow.

While the young automaker has confirmed it will unveil both models in late summer, we have already been warned that EV production will require some cadence while the South Carolina plant continues to scale. Which model will be built first has yet to be determined… or at least made public. Maybe we will find out in a couple of months. We will report back then!

Tesla has now disclosed that it is spending money to promote its shareholders vote to approve of Elon Musk’s $55 billion compensation package.

Back in 2018, Tesla shareholders approved one of the biggest compensation plans of all-time: a $55 billion fully stock-based CEO compensation plan for Elon Musk.

In January, a judge sided with lawyers representing a Tesla shareholder alleging that Tesla’s board misrepresented the compensation package when presenting it to shareholders.

It’s a complicated issue, but in short, the judge found that Tesla’s board and Musk didn’t play by the rules of a public company when it presented the plan to shareholders.

The judge found that Tesla had governance issues when coming up with the compensation plan and those issues were not communicated to shareholders before voting on the plan.

Instead, Tesla claimed that the plan was negotiated by “independent board members” when it was found that some board directors had personal financial dealings with Musk outside of Tesla, amongst other things.

The Delaware court found that this invalidated the vote, and therefore, Tesla had to rescind the compensation plan.

Last month, Tesla told shareholders that it will ask them to vote on moving Tesla’s state of incorporation to Texas and then revote for Musk’s compensation plan without changing anything.

Since then, Tesla has been working hard to get shareholders to vote for those two items. It started a website to promote it, sent countless communications to shareholders about it, and now, the company’s board is going a step further.

In a new filing with the SEC, Tesla confirmed that it is now buying ad spaces to encourage shareholders to vote for these items:

Tesla has to file with the SEC all the “communications” it has with shareholders regarding the vote and this time, the communications are listed as “sponsored” on Google – meaning that Tesla bought Google ads for it.

The automaker even spent money on Elon Musk’s pockets by buying ads on X with the post listed as “promoted”.

Tesla shareholders have until June 13th to vote their shares.

Electrek’s Take

Tesla’s board is clearly getting nervous about the vote.

It’s pretty funny that Tesla’s board, which got Elon’s compensation package invalidated after a judge found governance issues, is now approving spending Tesla’s money on an Elon-owned platform to try to influence a vote that would send even more money into Elon’s pockets.

That’s where we are now.

US grid operators haven’t been practicing long-term transmission planning, but for the first time, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) just made it mandatory.

FERC now requires proactive grid planning

FERC oversees interstate electricity transmission. The rule it released today, Order No. 1920, adopts specific requirements for transmission providers in the lower 47 states for long-term planning for regional transmission facilities. They also have to determine how to pay for them. (Texas has an an isolated grid, so it’s excluded.)

FERC gathered “tens of thousands of pages of comments, filed over the course of the past three years,” from stakeholders in the power industry, advocacy groups, and government bodies.

FERC chairman Willie Phillips said, “Our nation needs a new foundation to get badly needed new transmission planned, paid for, and built. With this new rule, that starts today.”

Operators are now required to conduct and periodically update long-term transmission planning over a 20-year time horizon to anticipate future needs. The order also provides for cost-effective expansion of transmission that’s being replaced, when needed – that’s known as “right-sizing” transmission facilities. FERC says Order No. 1920 “expressly provides for the states’ pivotal role throughout the process of planning, selecting, and determining how to pay for transmission lines.”

Phillips added:

Over the last dozen years, FERC has worked on five after-action reports on lessons learned from extreme weather events that caused outages that cost hundreds of lives and millions of dollars. We must get beyond these after-action reports and start planning to maintain a reliable grid that powers our entire way of life.

The rule also encourages grid innovation by requiring transmission providers to consider advanced transmission technologies that drive down ratepayer costs. Julia Selker, executive director of the WATT Coalition, said in a statement, “Grid enhancing technologies will be vital to achieving the seven economic and reliability benefits in the rule, especially production cost savings, reducing grid congestion, and improving performance in extreme weather.”

Melissa Alfano, senior director of energy markets and counsel for the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), said in a statement:

Our energy system has vastly different needs than it did when the grid was built out over a century ago, and today FERC stepped up to account for many of these needs… As transmission providers comply with this rule, FERC will need to remain vigilant to ensure effective and meaningful implementation.

You can read the major points in FERC’s fact sheet here.

Electrek’s Take

Transmission providers actually having a long-term strategy in place for the US grid seems like such an obvious thing that one would assume it was already in place, but it wasn’t. Turns out grid operators weren’t planning for the long term.

As FERC’s chairman mentions above about getting beyond after-action reports, the grid operators now have to move from reactive to proactive. Better late than never with this major move to upgrade and expand the US grid.

This ruling isn’t going to be a magic bullet, as it will take years to roll out. Plus, there will be the inevitable head butting among states due to disparate rollout plans for renewables.

But ultimately, this is great news. The grid will have more capacity for renewables and become more resilient in extreme weather as these (finally) forward-looking plans are put into place.

Read more: The US just came up with a plan to upgrade 100k miles of transmission lines in 5 years

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